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Dessert

Hampton Ginger Cake

A moist ginger cake made with molasses, brown sugar, butter, flour, eggs, ginger, baking soda, and sour cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Hampton Ginger Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and brown sugar together until light and fluffy.

  2. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl until light.

  3. Add the beaten eggs to the creamed mixture.

  4. Stir in the molasses mixed with ginger.

  5. Dissolve the baking soda in a little sour cream and add it to the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until done.

  3. Serve with hot wine sauce.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Add structure and richness as they set during baking.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake together.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color and deep sweetness.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour cream to help the cake rise.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda in sour cream. Baking soda needs an acid to react and produce lift. Dissolving it fully in the sour cream before adding it to the batter spreads the reaction evenly, so the cake rises without pockets or bitter spots.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, sugar, butter, flour, egg, cream):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Jalapenofits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, butter, flour, egg, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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